(Ira Byock, MD, advocate of terminal sedation, advances his cause under the aegis of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles on Feb 7.)

The California ProLife Council opposes ‘terminal sedation’ or the opiated dehydration of vulnerable patients. “This is the intentional, medical killing of a patient in one’s care,” said Brian Johnston, spokesman.

The practice of intentional medical dehydration was spelled out and condemned by the Nuremberg Medical Trials https://www.loc.gov/rr/frd/Military_Law/pdf/NT_war-criminals_Vol-II.pdf , HLSL SEQ. NO. 8900 – 09 JUNE 1947 – PAGE 8,753.

The California Conference of Catholic Bishops, under its recently ‘retired’ Director, had errantly supported this form of euthanasia in the case of Robert Wendland, filing an amicus brief with the California Courts supporting intentional dehydration. The California Supreme Court ruled against them, finding such practices to be unethical.

Pope John Paul II issued an ad limina rebuke of the Conference’s support of dehydration, and of the religious body’s approval of killing Robert Wendland. “…the omission of nutrition and hydration intended to cause a patient’s death must be rejected and that, while giving careful consideration to all the factors involved, the presumption should be in favor of providing medically assisted nutrition and hydration to all patients who need them.”
http://www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/speeches/1998/october/documents/hf_jp-ii_spe_19981002_ad-limina-usa.html

The retired Director of the California Catholic Conference suppressed public knowledge of the ad limina rebuke, and continues to work ‘advising’ the quasi-catholic, billion-dollar health industry in the Western states. The former “Catholic Healthcare West” has actually been instructed by the Bishop of Phoenix to no longer use the term “Catholic” due to their unethical medical procedures. https://www.ncronline.org/news/phoenix-bishop-removes-hospitals-catholic-status

Few Catholics seeking medical care in these facilities are aware of this dramatic departure from the ethics of the faith, mistakenly assuming the hospital system continues under its initial moral code and Catholic guidance.
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